Arjan van Timmeren (Scientific Director AMS Institute) and Arjen Zegwaard (Program Director MSc MADE) introduced the students to the urban challenges that Amsterdam and cities worldwide face today and how we need fitting solutions to accelerate the underlying transitions. Moreover, the students were introduced to AMS Institute and the solutions we work on. Kenneth Heijns (Managing Director AMS Institute) emphasized the importance of students, staff and researchers working together in the same building in order to be able to easily share knowledge and collaborate. He explained that AMS Institute’s network creates the opportunity to develop ideas further and put them into practice.
Students were also welcomed by Sacha Stolp (Senior Strategic Advisor at the City of Amsterdam). She held an engaging keynote on ‘’Why Amsterdam needs MSc MADE graduates”. She spoke about students being the new generations to come up with attractive solutions for the city of Amsterdam which can serve as an example for other cities. As she said:
“Our challenge is innovation and creating new traditions. And you will be very important when it comes to helping us with that”
Sacha Stolp | Senior Strategic Advisor | City of amsterdam
Sacha Stolp challenged the new MADE students to come up with new ideas and solutions for Amsterdam
Getting to know each other
After a tour through the building they moved from Marineterrein to Instock for an inspiring presentation about food waste, a tasting and a ‘pub quiz’. Instock is a company that aims to reduce food waste, by ‘rescuing’ food from stores and restaurants. They creatively cook with food that would have otherwise been wasted. A very entertaining and tasteful afternoon, during which the students where challenged to answer questions about food, waste and sustainability.
The day ended at Clubhouse were staff AMS Institute joined the students for drinks to get to know each other.
We are very excited to see what novel ideas and innovative solution the 2019/2020 year students will come up with. We look forward to working together on sustainable future cities!
Why students joined MSc MADE
With such a varied group of people, their reasons for joining the MSc MADE program also varied from student to student. But many students have in common that they aspire sustainable future cities and aim to get there by either becoming a business entrepreneur, a public policy consultant or a researcher in the academic field. With a focus on interdisciplinary approach and an international field, MSc MADE aims to support students to become real metropolitan innovators.
“Amsterdam deals with a lot of traffic and the pressure on the infrastructure is increasing. I see that keeping the city accessible is a big challenge”
Esther de Winter | BSc in Geography, Planning and Environment
“I have just been here for a week but I have noticed an unsustainable influx of tourism, plastic waste, and a very difficult housing situation.”
Nicolas Carvataz | BSc in Civil Engineering
“From my perspective, the biggest challenge is the water quantity problem, we have to tackle rising sea levels, high intensity rainfall as well as drought in summer months.”
Sam Bons | BSc in Land en Water Management
